Migration reversal: Why more Americans are now moving to Ireland
Tóibín, who was a prominent campaigner for the "yes" vote in Ireland’s same-sex marriage referendum, says: "Everyone became more aware that Ireland was a more liberal, cosmopolitan, open society, and that it would be a good place to live."By contrast, the US has moved to the political right under President Trump, who, since returning to office, has launched a major crackdown on illegal immigration. Tóibín revisits the Irish-American immigrant experience in his latest short story collection, The News from Dublin. In one story in the collection, Five Bridges, the protagonist is an undocumented Irish immigrant preparing to leave America before US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as Ice, come looking for him. The number of Irish citizens deported from the US rose by more than 50% in 2025. "There are large numbers of Irish people in America who are official in every way – they pay taxes, own their own house, have kids in school, but they came in on a tourist visa," says Tóibín. "If Ice found them, Ice would detain them. That's really frightening."Expatsi, a firm that helps US citizens to move abroad, reported it experienced a month's worth of traffic in the hours after President Trump's election in 2024. Expatsi co-founder Jen Barnett says the reasons Americans cite for leaving are wide-ranging. "[Factors include] what's going on politically in the US, and has been for 10 years, the cost of living, and then safety. Gun violence is so prevalent," she says.
